Perez’s former sponsor creates charity to make amends

The Hawkers sunglasses company that was dropped by Force India’s Sergio Perez after making a joke about President elect Donald Trump has created a charity to make amends.

Hawkers angered Perez after it made a joke about plans to build a wall on the Mexican border the day that Trump was elected, saying that Mexicans should wear their sunglasses to hide crying eyes when the wall between the United States and their country is built.

The Tweet urged Mexicans to buy the sunglasses to ‘hide their trying eyes tomorrow when you are building the wall.’

Following this, Perez immediately ended his deal with the company, meaning that thousands of limited edition sunglasses had to be disposed of.

To make up for their mistake, Hawkers created a full-page advert in the newspaper El Universal to apologise and offer $25,000 to a new Dear Sergio x Hawkers Foundation for underprivileged children.

The advert read: “Dear Sergio, sometimes we have accidents. You, more than anybody else, knows this. Although we don’t expect this accident to be forgotten, we will do everything possible to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

“We will continue to be with you, with the people of Mexico and with all those who oppose discrimination and racism in the world.”